Newark Mayor Cory Booker rouses Democratic convention

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the only New Jersey politician allotted time on the convention podium this week, brought a still-filling Democratic National Convention to its feet Tuesday, saying the party platform was “not about partisanship but pragmatism” and called for both significant cuts in spending and a tax system “where the wealthy pay their fair share.”

“When your country is in a costly war … being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare, it’s patriotism,” Booker said, causing the crowd to break into changes of “U-S-A, U-S-A.”

“You should be able to afford health care for your family. You should be able to retire with dignity and respect. And you should be able to give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger,” said Booker, co-chairman of the party’s platform committee.

Booker’s convention appearance is a sign that his nationally recognized dispute with President Obama is something Democrats are willing to overlook. The dispute began when the mayor called one of the president’s ads “nauseating,” quickly saw Booker head to YouTube for an awkward apology and ended when Obama’s top adviser called the mayor “just wrong.”

Booker has more Twitter followers than Republican nominee Mitt Romney, he’s appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and a documentary about his unsuccessful first campaign for mayor was nominated for an Academy Award. But despite his national reputation – and praise earned after rescuing a Newark woman from a burning building – Booker has had notable missteps, both large, like the fight with the president and small, like misspelling Obama’s name in an advertisement welcoming delegates to Charlotte.

Booker also has been criticized in Newark for putting national issues, and his own celebrity, ahead of city needs. Some Democrats worry Booker’s been too friendly with Governor Christie, while some union leaders in the state have sour feelings over his positions and the outcome of budget battles.

But Democrats nationally, and some in New Jersey, have high hopes that Booker will be the champion next year to take on Christie, the Republican who was the keynote speaker at his party’s convention last week.

“When you look at the rising stars in the Democratic Party, there’s no doubt Cory Booker is top on that list,” said Minnesota Democratic Chairman Ken Martin, whose delegation Booker visited before Florida’s, and who called on him to challenge Christie after the speech.

Booker is coy about his future: “I am going to focus on electing the president and deal with that question after November.

Booker’s most public political misstep came in May, when he said on “Meet the Press” that an Obama campaign ad attacking Romney over investments in companies that outsourced jobs was an example of negative campaigning that was “nauseating.” Before the day was out, as Republicans seized on a slam from a leading Obama surrogate, Booker had put out his own YouTube video clarifying his remarks.

Just after Booker made his comments in May, Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, said during a cable television interview that Booker was “just wrong.” Axelrod initially praised Booker and his general message that the presidential campaigns were becoming too consumed with distractions.

“I love Cory Booker. He’s a great mayor,” Axelrod said during an interview with MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “If my house was on fire, I’d hope he was my next door neighbor.”

But he said discussing Romney’s record at financial management firm Bain Capital was not a distraction because it is central to Romney’s position that his record as a businessman is part of what qualifies him to be president.

“In this particular instance, he was just wrong,” Axelrod said of Booker.

Mark Alexander, a New Jersey delegate and longtime friend of the president who was state director of his 2008 campaign in the state, said there was no way Booker would have been chosen to lead the platform committee if there was any doubt about his loyalty to Obama.

Booker insists there was no real falling out with the Obama campaign.

“It was in many ways a manufactured sort of story that was kept alive by a lot of folks,” Booker said in an interview. “The reality was, the campaign, even that week, the week of the craziness and the press swirl, they asked me to be the keynote speaker at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Louisiana.”

Booker said Tuesday’s speech, originally set to run just 2 minutes, was given more time after the campaign read it.

“I think they liked my flow at the end so they gave me a chance to extend it,” he said.

The speech ultimately lasted more than 10 minutes and included a defense of the party values and Obama’s policies.

“No matter who you are, no matter what your color, creed, how you choose to pray or who you choose to love, that if you are an American — first generation or fifth — one who is willing to work hard, play by the rules and apply your God-given talents, that you should be able to find a job that pays the bills,” Booker told the crowd. “You should be able to afford health care for your family. You should be able to retire with dignity and respect.”

Booker, 43, is serving his second four-year term after winning reelection in 2010. A former Rhodes scholar and football player at Stanford, Booker first won office in Newark as a member of the City Council in 1998. He lived in a tent in a parking lot to bring attention to public housing conditions and the city’s seeming tolerance of open-air drug markets.

In 2002, he took on Mayor Sharpe James — also a state senator who would later go to federal prison on corruption charges — but lost a close election. That contest was the subject of the documentary film “Street Fight.”

Booker, who was raised in Harrington Park, won the 2006 mayoral race and would go on to emphasize education reform, crime reduction and gun control. He’s also embraced social media, with more than 1 million followers on Twitter, and he responds to many personally. And Booker also attracted a $100 million gift for Newark schools from Facebook’s Zuckerberg in 2010.

Though a Democrat, Booker backed the property-tax levy cap that Christie, a Republican, was seeking in 2010. Booker also praised Christie’s plan that dramatically reorganized the state’s university system, which directly affects Newark.

“He’s an example of a strong Democratic leader, but he doesn’t seem to have his thumb on the pulse of his constituency,” said Sherryl Gordon, state director of District 1 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “The question for us would be whether or not a stronger relationship would be fostered if he sat in the State House.”

But even as the Obama campaign wants him to meet with as many state delegations as possible, Booker says he is making sure he spends quality time with the New Jersey delegation, including staying late at a dinner reception Monday night to visit every table.

It took him at least 20 minutes to get from the elevator to the door in the delegation hotel on Sunday, the kind of delay that has some on his staff exasperated this week but leaves state residents psyched.

“Cory has been a transformative leader,” said Leonia resident and delegate Cid Wilson shortly after getting his picture between the elevators and the hotel front door. “He has raised the national profile of Newark in a way nobody has ever done.”

Wilson also said that while Booker has had differences with other politicians and core Demo­cratic groups such as unions in Newark, he’s managed to do it without being rude or bullying, as he believes Christie has been.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday had Christie leading Booker by 47 percent to 40 percent, which shows that even without being a candidate Booker is known by a significant number of voters statewide.

Privately, since they want to reserve the option to back someone else if Booker doesn’t run, New Jersey party leaders say he would clear the field if he ran. State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, told a convention group this week she is running, and other potential candidates include Elizabeth Mayor Christopher Bollwage; state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex; Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden; and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch.

Other than Pallone and possibly Codey, Booker is seen as the only candidate who could approach and possibly beat Christie in fund-raising. He’s already built a fund-raising network from Beverly Hills to Boston that brought more than $1 million into a municipal PAC he runs.

Booker also is the only one who could come close to Christie when it comes to commanding media attention, as a compulsive user of Twitter who also writes Huffington Post articles, chats with Oprah Winfrey and even waged a YouTube war with Conan O’Brien over a joke at Newark’s expense.

At the convention, he can’t go anywhere without being stopped and asked to pose for pictures. He usually complies, even if, as on Tuesday morning, he can only stand on one leg because he twisted his ankle getting out of his SUV.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker rouses Democratic convention

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the only New Jersey politician allotted time on the convention podium this week, brought a still-filling Democratic National Convention to its feet Tuesday, saying the party platform was “not about partisanship but pragmatism” and called for both significant cuts in spending and a tax system “where the wealthy pay their fair share.”

“When your country is in a costly war … being asked to pay your fair share isn’t class warfare, it’s patriotism,” Booker said, causing the crowd to break into changes of “U-S-A, U-S-A.”

“You should be able to afford health care for your family. You should be able to retire with dignity and respect. And you should be able to give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger,” said Booker, co-chairman of the party’s platform committee.

Booker’s convention appearance is a sign that his nationally recognized dispute with President Obama is something Democrats are willing to overlook. The dispute began when the mayor called one of the president’s ads “nauseating,” quickly saw Booker head to YouTube for an awkward apology and ended when Obama’s top adviser called the mayor “just wrong.”

Booker has more Twitter followers than Republican nominee Mitt Romney, he’s appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and a documentary about his unsuccessful first campaign for mayor was nominated for an Academy Award. But despite his national reputation – and praise earned after rescuing a Newark woman from a burning building – Booker has had notable missteps, both large, like the fight with the president and small, like misspelling Obama’s name in an advertisement welcoming delegates to Charlotte.

Booker also has been criticized in Newark for putting national issues, and his own celebrity, ahead of city needs. Some Democrats worry Booker’s been too friendly with Governor Christie, while some union leaders in the state have sour feelings over his positions and the outcome of budget battles.

But Democrats nationally, and some in New Jersey, have high hopes that Booker will be the champion next year to take on Christie, the Republican who was the keynote speaker at his party’s convention last week.

“When you look at the rising stars in the Democratic Party, there’s no doubt Cory Booker is top on that list,” said Minnesota Democratic Chairman Ken Martin, whose delegation Booker visited before Florida’s, and who called on him to challenge Christie after the speech.

Booker is coy about his future: “I am going to focus on electing the president and deal with that question after November.

Booker’s most public political misstep came in May, when he said on “Meet the Press” that an Obama campaign ad attacking Romney over investments in companies that outsourced jobs was an example of negative campaigning that was “nauseating.” Before the day was out, as Republicans seized on a slam from a leading Obama surrogate, Booker had put out his own YouTube video clarifying his remarks.

Just after Booker made his comments in May, Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, said during a cable television interview that Booker was “just wrong.” Axelrod initially praised Booker and his general message that the presidential campaigns were becoming too consumed with distractions.

“I love Cory Booker. He’s a great mayor,” Axelrod said during an interview with MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “If my house was on fire, I’d hope he was my next door neighbor.”

But he said discussing Romney’s record at financial management firm Bain Capital was not a distraction because it is central to Romney’s position that his record as a businessman is part of what qualifies him to be president.

“In this particular instance, he was just wrong,” Axelrod said of Booker.

Mark Alexander, a New Jersey delegate and longtime friend of the president who was state director of his 2008 campaign in the state, said there was no way Booker would have been chosen to lead the platform committee if there was any doubt about his loyalty to Obama.

Booker insists there was no real falling out with the Obama campaign.

“It was in many ways a manufactured sort of story that was kept alive by a lot of folks,” Booker said in an interview. “The reality was, the campaign, even that week, the week of the craziness and the press swirl, they asked me to be the keynote speaker at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Louisiana.”

Booker said Tuesday’s speech, originally set to run just 2 minutes, was given more time after the campaign read it.

“I think they liked my flow at the end so they gave me a chance to extend it,” he said.

The speech ultimately lasted more than 10 minutes and included a defense of the party values and Obama’s policies.

“No matter who you are, no matter what your color, creed, how you choose to pray or who you choose to love, that if you are an American — first generation or fifth — one who is willing to work hard, play by the rules and apply your God-given talents, that you should be able to find a job that pays the bills,” Booker told the crowd. “You should be able to afford health care for your family. You should be able to retire with dignity and respect.”

Booker, 43, is serving his second four-year term after winning reelection in 2010. A former Rhodes scholar and football player at Stanford, Booker first won office in Newark as a member of the City Council in 1998. He lived in a tent in a parking lot to bring attention to public housing conditions and the city’s seeming tolerance of open-air drug markets.

In 2002, he took on Mayor Sharpe James — also a state senator who would later go to federal prison on corruption charges — but lost a close election. That contest was the subject of the documentary film “Street Fight.”

Booker, who was raised in Harrington Park, won the 2006 mayoral race and would go on to emphasize education reform, crime reduction and gun control. He’s also embraced social media, with more than 1 million followers on Twitter, and he responds to many personally. And Booker also attracted a $100 million gift for Newark schools from Facebook’s Zuckerberg in 2010.

Though a Democrat, Booker backed the property-tax levy cap that Christie, a Republican, was seeking in 2010. Booker also praised Christie’s plan that dramatically reorganized the state’s university system, which directly affects Newark.

“He’s an example of a strong Democratic leader, but he doesn’t seem to have his thumb on the pulse of his constituency,” said Sherryl Gordon, state director of District 1 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “The question for us would be whether or not a stronger relationship would be fostered if he sat in the State House.”

But even as the Obama campaign wants him to meet with as many state delegations as possible, Booker says he is making sure he spends quality time with the New Jersey delegation, including staying late at a dinner reception Monday night to visit every table.

It took him at least 20 minutes to get from the elevator to the door in the delegation hotel on Sunday, the kind of delay that has some on his staff exasperated this week but leaves state residents psyched.

“Cory has been a transformative leader,” said Leonia resident and delegate Cid Wilson shortly after getting his picture between the elevators and the hotel front door. “He has raised the national profile of Newark in a way nobody has ever done.”

Wilson also said that while Booker has had differences with other politicians and core Demo­cratic groups such as unions in Newark, he’s managed to do it without being rude or bullying, as he believes Christie has been.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday had Christie leading Booker by 47 percent to 40 percent, which shows that even without being a candidate Booker is known by a significant number of voters statewide.

Privately, since they want to reserve the option to back someone else if Booker doesn’t run, New Jersey party leaders say he would clear the field if he ran. State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, told a convention group this week she is running, and other potential candidates include Elizabeth Mayor Christopher Bollwage; state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex; Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden; and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-Long Branch.

Other than Pallone and possibly Codey, Booker is seen as the only candidate who could approach and possibly beat Christie in fund-raising. He’s already built a fund-raising network from Beverly Hills to Boston that brought more than $1 million into a municipal PAC he runs.

Booker also is the only one who could come close to Christie when it comes to commanding media attention, as a compulsive user of Twitter who also writes Huffington Post articles, chats with Oprah Winfrey and even waged a YouTube war with Conan O’Brien over a joke at Newark’s expense.

At the convention, he can’t go anywhere without being stopped and asked to pose for pictures. He usually complies, even if, as on Tuesday morning, he can only stand on one leg because he twisted his ankle getting out of his SUV.